VCs in Karnataka point out challenges in rolling out NEP regime

Academicians, especially vice-chancellors, chose the platform of a weighty conference to share their difficulties and concerns in the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) on Thursday.

The two-day conference on NEP Readiness organised by the Centre for Educational and Social Studies (CESS) was attended by vice-chancellors representing public and private universities. According to them, the challenges include curriculum design, shortage of staff, lack of funding and so on.

“The real challenge is to frame the syllabus,” University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor B J Rao said. “NEP speaks of inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary programmes. We need to think out of the box. We need to teach just enough so that the students can teach themselves the rest. Teachers have to become students and students teachers,” he said.

Academicians pointed that the faculty members feel burdened. “The faculty in universities say they are overloaded. Until and unless we do capacity-building within the institutions, we will not be able to drive the NEP home,” B S Madhukar, a former adviser with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) said.

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According to one vice-chancellor of a state university, the majority of the state-run universities have less than 10% permanent staff. “How could we ensure quality education?,” he asked.

Some academics frowned about lack of funding. They felt that state universities are not getting enough funding compared with central universities. Vice-chancellors also demanded more autonomy while highlighting the issue of ineligible candidates being appointed at key positions.

University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar, who joined the conference virtually, stressed on the need for good leadership.

“Higher educational institutions have to harness autonomy to the maximum to enable curriculum reformation,” he said. “In universities, there are academic councils that can bring changes and a strong leadership is important to align the universities to NEP,” he said. CESS has organised the conference in collaboration with NAAC, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, the Association of Indian Universities and Ramaiah Institute of Management.